At age three I managed to watch The Shining and was enamored with the use of color, never mind the content, which went right over my head. I wanted to watch it again and again: the clean colors of the apartment, the reds used throughout, the garden maze, or the pattern on the hotel carpet. It gave me lingering feelings that I wanted to return to. The Red Balloon is another film from childhood that had lasting effects. I still watch this a few times a year. 

With film being such a big part of my life I’ve started a list of movies and memories around them as a journal post, It’s like a junk drawer of films I’ve watched and little notes about where, when, and my feelings around that time. 

Studio News

I have two pieces in this year’s RHA Annual one of which is 'You’ve got to be kidding me' (pictured above). Read the story behind this painting here.

I had a super time in Kilkenny for the Generation 2022 show, meeting up in person with lots of old friends and longtime Instagram friends.

I am excited to share that a generous donor has bought and donated the three paintings I have in this show to the Butler Gallery’s permanent collection. 

Upcoming, I have an artist talk, and lots of studio visits in the coming month. Paintings are evolving and I’m enjoying the larger surfaces, playing around with new mediums and application techniques.

ie explains a painting

The painting shown, titled ‘Video City’ was painted from memory. It’s a scene from childhood of the now gone frozen yogurt shop, called TCBY in my hometown. In the painting, on the table is my go-to combo of strawberry frozen yogurt with sprinkles, across from which is my mom’s favorite of white chocolate mousse, no toppings. TCBY always had real flowers of carnation and baby’s-breath at the tables, the wooden chairs always a little wobbly. What the title alludes to is that on the other side of the wall was the local video rental place, called Video City. Brilliant business symbiotics, as rarely would we get frozen yogurt without bringing home a movie and vice versa. After eating our treats we’d make our way over and if luck were on our side get to pick out two tiles. I distinctly remember renting The Jetsons movie so many times that I was probably the customer to blame for a worn-down tape.

When I reached adolescence and could ride my bike alone to Video City, I’d spend excessive amounts of time looking at all the VHS covers, choosing one’s that were near the bottom with strange awards won from festivals or later going straight for the independent section. Little did I know that I was building a library of knowledge. Returning home with my latest find, nothing was better on a hot summer day than popping a bag of popcorn, grabbing a regular coke, and going into our basement alone, to watch my newest find.

Recommendations

We all need a good popcorn bowl to hug during a film, and my god this one is it from East Fork Pottery.

I recently started subscribing to MUBI a film steaming service and am loving it. This link gets you a free month. It also serves as a film database in that even if a film isn’t available you can still access the info about it. National Gallery by Frederick Wiseman is my top pick for the last month.

Boiling point a film on Netflix, is incredible, I’ll say no more.

Three of my favorite movie soundtracks Ten Things I Hate About You, Garden State and 500 days of Summer. 

I have to offer a book rec, even if it’s off theme, Celia Paul’s second book Letters to Gwen John was deeply moving in that Paul can articulate so much of what it means to be a painter, particularly a female one, and all the ways in which one has to often negate societies expectations. Shoutout to Worm books in Schull for ordering me a copy.

Eat this

Perfectly Popped Popcorn

— the classic movie snack —

For the last 10 years I’ve used a Whirley pop. A piece of kitchen equipment that has one purpose, takes up a lot of space, but is well worth these pitfalls. However, the recipe below is the method I learned from my mom and use when I don’t have the whirley pop.

Growing up we had a T-fal set of saucepans with light lids and the entertainment offered in watching the lid lift as the popcorn popped was often better than any movie we were about to watch. 

This recipe is best when you adapt to the scale of the vessel you are popping in, therefore no measurements are given, instead I explain how to adapt to your saucepan.

Ingredients

• Canola Oil (any neutral oil with a high smoke point works)

• Popcorn kernels

• Salt

Directions

1. In a large saucepan coat the bottom with a thin layer of oil*
2. Add three kernels of popcorn, place the lid on, and turn the heat to just above medium high
3. Wait for the three kernels to pop — this lets you know the oil is hot enough
4. Pour enough kernels into the pan to cover the bottom — typically in a large saucepan this ranges from 1/3 to 1/2C
5. As the popcorn pops give little shakes
6. When you can count to three between pops turn off the heat, pour into a big bowl, sprinkle with salt, and eat 

*for extra flair, add 1 tsp of coconut oil and this often leads to a flavor resonant of theater popcorn. Popping in pure coconut oil is delicious but take practice as it can burn easily, so best to start with a mix and work your way from there. 

Did you stumble upon this and want to be a regular?